Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. / Spencer Platt, Getty Images

by John Waggoner, USA TODAY

by John Waggoner, USA TODAY

The Federal Reserve's job is to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going. The jobs report for December doesn't give any indication guests will be getting their coats anytime soon.

The Fed has kept short-term interest rates low and has been buying Treasury bonds to keep long-term rates low in a bid to stimulate the economy â?? particularly employment. Low rates let people and corporations refinance their debt, giving them more money to spend.

At 7.8%, unemployment is still higher than the Fed would like, which means the Fed's efforts to keep rates low will probably continue through most of this year, says Sam Stovall, market strategist for Standard & Poor's Capital IQ.

Job increases in manufacturing and construction are encouraging, Stovall says. Still, the economy is in a slow-growth mode and remains vulnerable.

For the stock market, the report's picture of a slowly recovering economy is good, but not great news.

The stock market is still looking for a catalyst to continue the upward momentum it got with the "fiscal cliff" agreement" earlier this week, Stovall says. In other words, the market's attention will likely shift to fourth-quarter earnings to justify more stock-buying.

For bond investors, the slight improvement means the Fed may end its bond-buying program by the end of the year, assuming unemployment dips below 7% by then. If that's the case, investors can expect bond yields to trend slightly higher this year.

Bond prices fall when yields rise. The 10-year Treasury note currently yields 1.95%, up from 1.71% just a week ago. But any interest payments are unlikely to completely offset price declines.